I will preface this entry by saying that it is very long, and possibly full of errors since I am currently on a word processor that lacks correctional functions in English, so my apologies in advance. However, the bulk of it is about climbing Cotopaxi, a popular Ecuadorian volcano, so I thought that was worth the space. Happy Reading!
Since leaving Cuenca, we have had quite the adventure: Cotopaxi! To start with, we took a beautiful trip up to Las Cajas, a national park outside of Cuenca. The point of this was to acclimatize our bodies to higher altitude as much as we could. After climbing a peak in Las Cajas, we had to come to Quito in order to arrange a guide for our trip up the mountain, so we took the eight-hour trip from Cuenca to Quito, and once everything was all booked, we climbed Pichincha, a mountain just outside of Quito. (You have to take a cable car from the city in order to start the hike.) Not having any food, however, we decided to turn back just a little before we reached 4,700 meters. Through this process, we didn’t feel light-headed or dizzy, signs of altitude sickness, so we figured we were generally ready for Cotopaxi.
Next we left Quito. We could have stayed in the city and gotten a free ride (saving us two dollars) to Cotopaxi National Park, but we wanted to try to acclimatize ourselves further. So we hopped on a bus and found the cheaper of two hotels near Cotopaxi, which was just off of the highway. Not being at a high altitude, however, we wanted to go to a nearby lake to hike around a bit in order to be sure we were acclimatized. Just after checking in to “Hotel El Turista,” we hired a driver to take us up to the lake. However, this 25-minute drive cost us about 30 dollars! Plus, the lake was actually much lower than any of the mountains we had previously climbed, and to make matters worse, we were only there for about 45 minutes before we walked the entirety of the lake. We wanted to stay a little longer, but I was getting pretty tired, and it was just starting to rain. Feeling a bit frustrated at the high cost of the driver, the low-ish altitude, and the short amount of time we were there, we begrudgingly told our driver that we would like to head back.
For the remainder of the day, we read, wrote in journals, and listened to podcasts, and had a chance to talk with our hostess for a while. At first we really liked her. She seemed to relate with us about how other businesses tend to rip foreigners off during their travels in Ecuador, and we were glad that we didn’t stay at the other hotel that was twice the price. Before long, we realized that we wouldn’t have enough food for breakfast in the morning, so we let her know that we would like her to cook some for us. Having talked with her a bit, we trusted that the price wouldn’t be too extravagant. (She mentioned that the price for a meal should be no more than three dollars per person in a previous conversation.) Little did we know that this breakfast would cost us 5 dollars each.
All this aside, we were still excited to get up the mountain. Our guides picked us up at the hotel and drove us up to the Cotopaxi restaurant where we would put on all of our cold-weather gear and eat some lunch (cookies, chips, and soup). At this point, getting to know our group was really fun. There was Michael, a Korean-American working as a lawyer in Korea; Greg, a well-traveled consultant of multiple talents working for the pharmeceutical industry; and a Swiss guy (whose name I obviously forgot) working in Quito with a Swiss engineering firm. After we get geared up, we drive to the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain and start to make our ascent up to the refuge (just over 4800m). The weather up the mountain wasn´t great. In fact, it was snowing fairly hard on us. Our guide, wanting to get us out of the weather as soon as possible, kept us at a steady pace up the mountain. By the time we got to the top, we were sufficiently out of breath and ready to set down our heavy packs.
Once at the refuge – a building large enough to house maybe 70 people or so – we claimed our beds and sat down for hot tea and dinner. We got to know our group even better, and it was here that an adjascent group of two Americans started talking to Kait; they let her know that they were working at a school in Quito that had just lost a literature teacher and were looking for another. After some discussion, Kait and I decided that I should pursue this opportunity, but more on that later.
At about 6:30 or 7pm, we crawled into bed (after I snuck out to take some night shots of the refuge and of nearby city lights). I, well aware that 7pm was REALLY early to try to get some sleep, just lay there sleepless for a very long time. Before long, I noticed that my left nostril had decided to close, exactly the opposite of what anyone would want in a high-altitude, air-thin environment like that. Naturally, I developed a small headache that grew into a very large headache which further prevented me from sleeping. For hours and hours, it went like this. After a while, people started stirring, and I asked Greg what time it was. He told me that it was almost midnight, the time we were supposed to get up to start getting ready for the ascent to the summit. I decided that there was no point in trying to lay there the extra 10 minutes, so I started to get up.
Almost immediately, I felt abnormally hot and a bit dizzy. It was here that I was almost certain that I had altitude sickness. Fighting this feeling, I made my way downstairs, first to the doorway where I could get some fresh air, and then eventually to the table where I could feebly attempt to eat something in order to have some energy. One of the symptoms of altitude sickness – if not the tell-tale symptom – is a lack of appetite, and despite my best efforts, I could hardly eat anything. Once Kait joined me downstairs after a long absence from the table, she alerted me that she didn´t feel too well either. At this point, I was still feeling dizzy and my head was pounding, but I knew I had to put on my gear. Against my body´s will, I managed to rig myself up, and before long – and after some help from the guide with our clampons (spikey clamps that fit to the bottom of the boots) – we were outside and ready to go.
Being a bit behind the other groups out of the door, we told our guide that we would be happy to take it nice and slow. Greg, an experienced climber (who, anecdotally, had just come from the Galapagos, a very low elevation) told me that he had overcome these symptoms before just be being in the fresh air. Heartened, I hoped this would be true. I let Kait be ahead of me and behind the guide on the way up because she had been having problems breathing the night before, and this was instantly what she started feeling as she started up.Also, I was suffering from a bad stomach ache as well as unusual overheating, the kind associated generally with nausea, so it was clear to me that my body wanted to throw up, but I just couldn´t get it to. Other groups passed us until I was sure that we were the last of the people who had decided to leave the refuge. Our guide, the most kind, encouraging human being alive, was saddened by our agreement that after only 30 minutes, we were ready to throw in the towel. The decisión was originally Kait´s, but I knew that I wouldn´t likely make it much further – or that at least I wouldn´t feel very good at all if I did. Kait suggested maybe that I tag along with another group, which I could have done, but I knew I would have slowed them down and that I essentially wouldn´t be able to turn back if I needed to without making the whole group turn back. So we headed back to the refuge.
Once there, I started to strip my shell clothes, and get ready for the sweet embrace of sleep, but before I could so much as hit my head to the non-existant pillow, I felt the urge to do what my body had been waiting for. So I urged Kait to hand me my boots, and I headed downstairs and out the door. I remembered thinking how amazing it was that the human body seems to somehow know when it is okay to throw up and when not to because it took maybe two full minutes to get my boots on and out the door. Then it wasn´t even five seconds later that I was re-tasting the cookies and soup that I had had for lunch. After doing this three times, I left the freezing (literally) cold air and crawled into bed. After ensuring we would be warm enough, Kait and I fell asleep for a few hours. We were later awakened at what must have been four or five in the morning by people returning from the trip; these were the ones who did not get sick.
I knew that they had returned way too early, and I began to wonder why. After a few minutes of much motion, shedding of gear, and settling into beds, I overheard a non-sick climber tell a sick one near us that since so much fresh snow had fallen on the mountain, the guides decided that nobody should traverse the more dangerous parts that started about 800 meters from the summit. Although I felt bad that no one could make it, I somehow felt a little better that since I and Kait couldn´t make it, there was some kind of universal justice in the fact that no one else could either.
Kait and I soon woke up, and I went outside to take some pictures of the rising sun over the landscape. (I guess the same view I was photographing had been shown in the film Baraka). A little later, the sun was well up, and it was a beautifully clear day, a large change from the previous day, so we were glad that at least we were able to get some clear shots of the surrounding landscape before we left.
Before long, we were down the mountain, and then in Quito…again. We actually wanted to go to Latacunga for the night, but we decided that it would be better to try to apply at the school with a missing teacher. So I emailed the school promptly upon arrival on Sunday, and I got an interview at the school even though the position had already been filled. (I was applying for 2011-2012. The interview went very well, and I have high hopes for working in the school. With an International Baccalaureate program, it would be excellent learning experience for me. So far nothing is for sure, but the interviewer seemed very positive, so we´ll see.
Now, Kait and I are back in Cuenca. Since I had to call schools (that I have recently applied to), we decided to stay in a place that could at least guarantee decent internet access. We actually wanted to be in Vilcabamba by now, but it does not have decent internet (it is very rural), so we will make it there tomorrow. After that, we will be able to start traveling to Iquitos, Peru, the largest city in the world that is inaccessible by road. We will travel a few days into Peru, and then we will take a boat up the Amazon river for about 3-6 days (but hopefully only 3!)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
A farewell to Cuenca
It´s almost time for us to say goodbe to Cuenca- it´s hard to believe almost a month has gone by already. It´s been a good one- Ace´s Spanish has improved a ton (mine too, I hope), I loved my volunteer work, and we´ve met a lot of really lovely people.
Ace has plowed through ALL the Spanish tenses in four weeks- something that took me, oh, I don´t know, about five years. I’ve been taking a few hours of classes a week, too, and have done some good reviewing of all the grammar I’ve forgotten.
My schedule of wild animal refuge two days a week, street dog rescue shelter/vet clinic two days a week has been great, too. Some highlights of the wild animal refuge were getting to hang out in cages with monkeys (and hold little baby Jacobo) and hand feed baby deer and ostriches. And, of course, watching Ace get charged by an enraged llama! As hard as he tried, Felipe (the llama) wasn’t all that threatening. The clinic was amazing, too. On my first day, I went with one of the vets to pick up a dog that had been called in by a neighbor. It was a tiny little puppy living in a home where he had been horribly abused. I have never seen anything as wild or as angry as that tiny little abused puppy- we had to tie his mouth shut to keep him from biting us, and I was still afraid to pick him up. For the past three weeks, he’s continued to be extremely aggressive, but yesterday when I visited the shelter I saw him snuggling other dogs, and he was even jumping up on my legs wanting to play! It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. I’ve also been able to observe surgeries and lots of other vet stuff. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m thining seriously about trying to get into vet school when we return home, which is pretty huge for me! I’ve pretty much spent my whole life wondering what I should do as a career without any leads whatsoever. Yay for direction! Thank you Cuenca!
Since we were staying here for a while, I decided to contact some of the people living in Cuenca on Couchsurfing and see if anyone wanted to hang out. I sent out a ton of messages, since I hadn’t gotten a lot of replies in the past. Surprise! Pretty much everyone wrote back. People are so warm here. We had 10 or so Couchsurfers over to our hostel for a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, which was really fun. Ace and I spent the whole day cooking as close to a traditional feast as we could- two whole chickens (they have turkey here, but it’s really expensive), mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, apple cider, empanadas (a little touch of Ecuador), Mom’s yummy candied walnut salad, and an apple berry cobbler. The gravy was the only thing that totally bombed, which I was ok with. Plus, our guests were all from different countries (five Ecuadorians, two Spaniards, two Belgians,and a Brazilian), so they didn’t know what they were missing ! We’ve gotten to hang out with Roos and Kathleen, the two lovely Belgian girls, quite a bit. We went to Baños (a nearby village with really nice hot springs) two weekends ago, and on a waterfall hike last weekend. We also have gotten to hang out with Claire-Marie and Pepo a few times. Claire-Marie is a French girl working in a charitable foundation here, and Pepo is a rad Ecuadorian guy who is working on making Ace a thumb harp Lots of good people here.
We´re looking to keep pretty busy our last week- going salsa dancing with Kathleen , Pepo, and Claire-Marie tonight, going to Pepo´s family´s property to help with the house-building effort on Friday, going to my Spanish teacher´s family barbecue on Saturday, and going to Cajas national park on Sunday. Enshallah-ojala. Oh yeah, and studying and working too :)
We haven´t really plotted out exactly what´s next, but after seeing Roos´photos of climbing Cotopaxi, we decided we can´t leave Ecuador without doing it. So after here it´s back north to prepare and acclimatize to the elevation, hiking a rad glacier-covered volcano (with professional guides and good gear, no worries!), then baaackkk south (again) towards Vilcabamba and on to Peru. We´re thinking we should be in Iquitos, Peru by Christmas so we can either enjoy a magical hippy Christmas on the Rainbow Community farm or be out in the jungle spearing pirahnas and cooking them over the fire for our Christmas dinner. Or something like that.
Lots of love to all of you back home. We love and miss you, as always.
Ace has plowed through ALL the Spanish tenses in four weeks- something that took me, oh, I don´t know, about five years. I’ve been taking a few hours of classes a week, too, and have done some good reviewing of all the grammar I’ve forgotten.
My schedule of wild animal refuge two days a week, street dog rescue shelter/vet clinic two days a week has been great, too. Some highlights of the wild animal refuge were getting to hang out in cages with monkeys (and hold little baby Jacobo) and hand feed baby deer and ostriches. And, of course, watching Ace get charged by an enraged llama! As hard as he tried, Felipe (the llama) wasn’t all that threatening. The clinic was amazing, too. On my first day, I went with one of the vets to pick up a dog that had been called in by a neighbor. It was a tiny little puppy living in a home where he had been horribly abused. I have never seen anything as wild or as angry as that tiny little abused puppy- we had to tie his mouth shut to keep him from biting us, and I was still afraid to pick him up. For the past three weeks, he’s continued to be extremely aggressive, but yesterday when I visited the shelter I saw him snuggling other dogs, and he was even jumping up on my legs wanting to play! It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. I’ve also been able to observe surgeries and lots of other vet stuff. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m thining seriously about trying to get into vet school when we return home, which is pretty huge for me! I’ve pretty much spent my whole life wondering what I should do as a career without any leads whatsoever. Yay for direction! Thank you Cuenca!
Since we were staying here for a while, I decided to contact some of the people living in Cuenca on Couchsurfing and see if anyone wanted to hang out. I sent out a ton of messages, since I hadn’t gotten a lot of replies in the past. Surprise! Pretty much everyone wrote back. People are so warm here. We had 10 or so Couchsurfers over to our hostel for a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, which was really fun. Ace and I spent the whole day cooking as close to a traditional feast as we could- two whole chickens (they have turkey here, but it’s really expensive), mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, apple cider, empanadas (a little touch of Ecuador), Mom’s yummy candied walnut salad, and an apple berry cobbler. The gravy was the only thing that totally bombed, which I was ok with. Plus, our guests were all from different countries (five Ecuadorians, two Spaniards, two Belgians,and a Brazilian), so they didn’t know what they were missing ! We’ve gotten to hang out with Roos and Kathleen, the two lovely Belgian girls, quite a bit. We went to Baños (a nearby village with really nice hot springs) two weekends ago, and on a waterfall hike last weekend. We also have gotten to hang out with Claire-Marie and Pepo a few times. Claire-Marie is a French girl working in a charitable foundation here, and Pepo is a rad Ecuadorian guy who is working on making Ace a thumb harp Lots of good people here.
We´re looking to keep pretty busy our last week- going salsa dancing with Kathleen , Pepo, and Claire-Marie tonight, going to Pepo´s family´s property to help with the house-building effort on Friday, going to my Spanish teacher´s family barbecue on Saturday, and going to Cajas national park on Sunday. Enshallah-ojala. Oh yeah, and studying and working too :)
We haven´t really plotted out exactly what´s next, but after seeing Roos´photos of climbing Cotopaxi, we decided we can´t leave Ecuador without doing it. So after here it´s back north to prepare and acclimatize to the elevation, hiking a rad glacier-covered volcano (with professional guides and good gear, no worries!), then baaackkk south (again) towards Vilcabamba and on to Peru. We´re thinking we should be in Iquitos, Peru by Christmas so we can either enjoy a magical hippy Christmas on the Rainbow Community farm or be out in the jungle spearing pirahnas and cooking them over the fire for our Christmas dinner. Or something like that.
Lots of love to all of you back home. We love and miss you, as always.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Daily life in Cuenca
It's been very nice to "settle down" for a month in one particular city for a while. I have been keeping myself quite busy by attending Spanish classes, which are about a 5-minute walk from the hostel. I feel like I have been progressing well during my time here, mostly because I have been studying like crazy. Getting the most out of the lessons this month has definitely been my top priority. My teacher is very intelligent, and he generally likes to talk with me about Ecuadorian, world, or U.S. politics. Today we talked about such light, breezy topics as the controversy over the mosque going up in New York and the war in Iraq; this was after we talked about why Ecuador is an ungovernable country (my teacher's opinion).
Kait has been volunteering at the animal refuge, a place outside of the city that has all kinds of wild animals that they are rehabilitating. I haven't been there yet, but I will go this Wednesday on my "day off" from classes. (I arranged with my teacher to add those hours on to a different day.) She also just found another refuge located here in the city where she will be volunteering for two days per week.
The weather here has been quite rainy throughout our entire stay here. I guess it is supposed to be like the Corvallis of Ecuador in that it rains a lot, and the weather is just as unpredictable by the week as it is by the hour.
We do enjoy, however, going to the nearby food market, a large indoor warehouse sort of building with two stories - raw produce and meat on the ground level and cooked food and fruit blends on the top. This is a nice way to get out of the hostel and eat some good food. I personally enjoy the roast pig that they have in one section of the upper level. Once you come up the stairs, you immediately see about seven whole, roasted pigs sitting out on the counters waiting for you. The vendors serve the pork on a bed of rice or some kind of cooked corn mixed with vegetables. Yum!
To get out over the weekend, we went to our nearest ice cream/coffee shop and sat for a while to study. After that, we found the local shopping mall (wherein could be found a cinema) to watch a nice romantic action movie. Other than that, we have been keeping pretty busy by cooking for almost every meal, studying in the hostel, reading our newly purchased books from a nearby English bookstore (a rare thing in Ecuador) and just getting to know the city.
Hopefully next weekend, we will take a trip to Cajas National Park and we'll let you know how it goes. We wanted to go this weekend, but the weather was so rainy that we decided to stay in town.
Kait has been volunteering at the animal refuge, a place outside of the city that has all kinds of wild animals that they are rehabilitating. I haven't been there yet, but I will go this Wednesday on my "day off" from classes. (I arranged with my teacher to add those hours on to a different day.) She also just found another refuge located here in the city where she will be volunteering for two days per week.
The weather here has been quite rainy throughout our entire stay here. I guess it is supposed to be like the Corvallis of Ecuador in that it rains a lot, and the weather is just as unpredictable by the week as it is by the hour.
We do enjoy, however, going to the nearby food market, a large indoor warehouse sort of building with two stories - raw produce and meat on the ground level and cooked food and fruit blends on the top. This is a nice way to get out of the hostel and eat some good food. I personally enjoy the roast pig that they have in one section of the upper level. Once you come up the stairs, you immediately see about seven whole, roasted pigs sitting out on the counters waiting for you. The vendors serve the pork on a bed of rice or some kind of cooked corn mixed with vegetables. Yum!
To get out over the weekend, we went to our nearest ice cream/coffee shop and sat for a while to study. After that, we found the local shopping mall (wherein could be found a cinema) to watch a nice romantic action movie. Other than that, we have been keeping pretty busy by cooking for almost every meal, studying in the hostel, reading our newly purchased books from a nearby English bookstore (a rare thing in Ecuador) and just getting to know the city.
Hopefully next weekend, we will take a trip to Cajas National Park and we'll let you know how it goes. We wanted to go this weekend, but the weather was so rainy that we decided to stay in town.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Weeding in Paradise
After returning to civilization, we were at a bit of a loss of what to do. We knew we wanted to settle down somewhere for a month so Ace could take Spanish classes, and we knew we liked Cuenca when we passed through. We also knew there was an animal refuge there that might be fun for me to volunteer at while Ace studied- the problem was that the only info we could find on the refuge was through a volunteer agency that wanted me to pay them several hundred bucks to work for free, and that the office would be closed for the next 4 days anyways due to Dia de los Santos and Cuencan independence day.
We were wandering around Vilcabamba aimlessly when we bumped into the two men who came to look at purchasing El Condor when we were up there. We chatted a bit, and they mentioned they´d just been out to another farm that accepted volunteers, and invited us to come visit it with them the next day. We agreed and went out to Garden of Paradise the next day, where the two very interesting owners invited us to stay with them through the holidays starting Monday. We agreed and headed back to our hostel, where we discovered that the 30ish American guy staying next door to us had just bought a farm and was accepting volunteers. We had a fun Halloween evening eating fries and drinking beer at the local expat hangout with him, his twin brother, and some other of his friends. Yay networking!
The next day we headed out to Garden of Paradise, where Norie and Richard put us up in their beautiful guest quarters. I won´t even get into the missions of the anti-nuclear activist/archealogist/bestselling author/motivational speaker/ multilingual owners or the many things the future will hold for their property…their website will tell you all about it if you´re interested!
http://www.gardenofparadise.net/Garden_of_Paradise/Garden_of_Paradise.html
We spent Monday through Saturday there, sanding railings, digging trenches, watering countless trees and plants, weeding, and more. We had a lot of fun conversations and good meals cooked together, but the highlight for both Ace and I was definitely getting to edit the first half of the book Norie is currently working on. So cool! On Thursday we went into town and made some phone calls. I did manage to get a hold of the animal refuge on my own, without the expensive middle man- yay!
On Saturday morning we said “goodbye for now” to Norie and Richard and took the extremely curvy 6 hour bus ride back up to Cuenca. Fortunately, the bus driver was much less insane this time and we weren’t fighting back nausea for the entire trip like last time. Once in Cuenca, we set about looking for a decent hostel that would cut us a good deal for a one-month stay. After checking out a bunch, we ended up at La Perla Cuencana, a cozy little family-run place with a kitty, kitchens, internet, and one decent shower with gives hot water (as opposed to the other 5 freezing cold showers). We’re keeping that hidden-away jem as our little secret.
We’re settled in very happily here now. Ace started his classes today (he’ll be doing 10 hours a week of private lessons in the mornings, and hopefully volunteering with me on Wednesdays) and I’ll start my 4 hours a week of after-volunteering lessons tomorrow. I’ve been out to the refuge twice now, and am really enjoying getting to know the wonderful owner and his family and getting to get up close and personal with so many amazing animals. I haven’t felt super useful, but hopefully that will change as I learn more and am able to take on more tasks on my own.
We were wandering around Vilcabamba aimlessly when we bumped into the two men who came to look at purchasing El Condor when we were up there. We chatted a bit, and they mentioned they´d just been out to another farm that accepted volunteers, and invited us to come visit it with them the next day. We agreed and went out to Garden of Paradise the next day, where the two very interesting owners invited us to stay with them through the holidays starting Monday. We agreed and headed back to our hostel, where we discovered that the 30ish American guy staying next door to us had just bought a farm and was accepting volunteers. We had a fun Halloween evening eating fries and drinking beer at the local expat hangout with him, his twin brother, and some other of his friends. Yay networking!
The next day we headed out to Garden of Paradise, where Norie and Richard put us up in their beautiful guest quarters. I won´t even get into the missions of the anti-nuclear activist/archealogist/bestselling author/motivational speaker/ multilingual owners or the many things the future will hold for their property…their website will tell you all about it if you´re interested!
http://www.gardenofparadise.net/Garden_of_Paradise/Garden_of_Paradise.html
We spent Monday through Saturday there, sanding railings, digging trenches, watering countless trees and plants, weeding, and more. We had a lot of fun conversations and good meals cooked together, but the highlight for both Ace and I was definitely getting to edit the first half of the book Norie is currently working on. So cool! On Thursday we went into town and made some phone calls. I did manage to get a hold of the animal refuge on my own, without the expensive middle man- yay!
On Saturday morning we said “goodbye for now” to Norie and Richard and took the extremely curvy 6 hour bus ride back up to Cuenca. Fortunately, the bus driver was much less insane this time and we weren’t fighting back nausea for the entire trip like last time. Once in Cuenca, we set about looking for a decent hostel that would cut us a good deal for a one-month stay. After checking out a bunch, we ended up at La Perla Cuencana, a cozy little family-run place with a kitty, kitchens, internet, and one decent shower with gives hot water (as opposed to the other 5 freezing cold showers). We’re keeping that hidden-away jem as our little secret.
We’re settled in very happily here now. Ace started his classes today (he’ll be doing 10 hours a week of private lessons in the mornings, and hopefully volunteering with me on Wednesdays) and I’ll start my 4 hours a week of after-volunteering lessons tomorrow. I’ve been out to the refuge twice now, and am really enjoying getting to know the wonderful owner and his family and getting to get up close and personal with so many amazing animals. I haven’t felt super useful, but hopefully that will change as I learn more and am able to take on more tasks on my own.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
El Condor - WWOOF site
Today we find ourselves in the middle of Vilcabamba, the village from which we springboarded to El Condor. After 10 days straight on the farm, we have arrived back here with pleasure in seeing other people, stomachs poised and ready for good cuisine, and an appreciation for our experience on the farm.
Although the work we did there was by no means easy, we can´t say that we did enough work to feel the full brunt of "pure" farm living. To start with, we were the only people consistently staying the night on the farm and remaining there through our 10-day stretch. The only other person that we really had contact with was a kind man by the name of Vicente, the caretaker of the farm. Apparently, the owner of El Condor recently passed away, and his two sons are living in the U.S. and attending university in a coastal city of Ecuador, so Vicente is the only one attending to the farm and the animals on it. He takes care of nurturing seedlings to be planted (like coffee, broccoli, alfalfa, and others), and he maintains the amount of plants already there. He uses the alfalfa and corn grown there to feed the chickens and guinea pigs that he has been raising.
We arrived on a Thursday, and while there, we helped do a few things on the farm; principally, we helped by arranging bovine fertilizer (cow poo) into piles along a very steep hillside where the (pregnant) cows had been grazing. Although the work wasn´t too hard by itself, going up and down a steep hill with full buckets of fertilzer proved fairly tiring after a couple of hours. Focusing on not touching my face with my gloved hand was definitely a mental difficulty. Other tasks included weeding thickly grown plants from the coffee patch and the upper garden with shovels and helping to mend fences with bamboo. However, on the whole, we can say that we probably had more free time than we did work time. We filled this mostly by studying our Spanish books on the porch or in the dining room and preparing/collecting various kinds of food.
Anyways, Vicente was there roughly every other day - or less - during our stay there, which was nice because we had days where we were free to simply sit and ponder about what hard, physical, farm labor SHOULD be like. His absence did, however provide an obstacle or two during our stay there.
Usually with WWOOF organizations, it is expected for them to feed the volunteers (us) during the stay there, but seeing as how they only offer foods that they grow on the farm, we made sure to bring in whatever extra food we would need from the stores in town. Anyways, after we had exhausted our two loaves of bread, avocado, and other staples(a few days in), we were primarily left with lentils, beans rice, and potatoes, as well as a few veggies we still had left. By this time it was Sunday, and we had already prepared and eaten a few of the foods just mentioned earlier in the week. We anticipated Vicente to come back on Monday to take down our shopping list so that he could run into town with his motor bike and buy us a few more staples on Tuesday to last us the week.
Long story short, he did not show up when we thought he would, and we ended up eating nothign but lentils, beans, rice, and potatoes for longer than expected, which had gassy results for both of us, as you can imagine... Once he delivered our food, however, we were unusually ecstatic about simple things such as german pancakes and toast; I never thought something so simple as toast would give me so much pleasure in life.
I would say that the things we enjoyed most were picking blackberries (and making an improvised cobbler out of it), collecting oranges and bananas for fresh juice and smoothies, hiking around just for the fun of it, witnessing inexplicably beautiful sunsets over the Andean mountain range every evening, and having a perfectly stress-free 10 days where all we really had to worry about was feeding ourselves (and the critters) and bathing, in that order. We are really glad to have had such a unique experience in Ecuador, and we can´t wait to have more similar experiences at WWOOF organizations in other countries as well.
For now, though, the rough plan is to travel to Cuenca tomorrow where I will start attending a language school for a month, and Kait will explore volunteer opportunities. We have already found very promising prospects on both of these fronts, so we are excited to see how things work out. Wish us luck!
Although the work we did there was by no means easy, we can´t say that we did enough work to feel the full brunt of "pure" farm living. To start with, we were the only people consistently staying the night on the farm and remaining there through our 10-day stretch. The only other person that we really had contact with was a kind man by the name of Vicente, the caretaker of the farm. Apparently, the owner of El Condor recently passed away, and his two sons are living in the U.S. and attending university in a coastal city of Ecuador, so Vicente is the only one attending to the farm and the animals on it. He takes care of nurturing seedlings to be planted (like coffee, broccoli, alfalfa, and others), and he maintains the amount of plants already there. He uses the alfalfa and corn grown there to feed the chickens and guinea pigs that he has been raising.
We arrived on a Thursday, and while there, we helped do a few things on the farm; principally, we helped by arranging bovine fertilizer (cow poo) into piles along a very steep hillside where the (pregnant) cows had been grazing. Although the work wasn´t too hard by itself, going up and down a steep hill with full buckets of fertilzer proved fairly tiring after a couple of hours. Focusing on not touching my face with my gloved hand was definitely a mental difficulty. Other tasks included weeding thickly grown plants from the coffee patch and the upper garden with shovels and helping to mend fences with bamboo. However, on the whole, we can say that we probably had more free time than we did work time. We filled this mostly by studying our Spanish books on the porch or in the dining room and preparing/collecting various kinds of food.
Anyways, Vicente was there roughly every other day - or less - during our stay there, which was nice because we had days where we were free to simply sit and ponder about what hard, physical, farm labor SHOULD be like. His absence did, however provide an obstacle or two during our stay there.
Usually with WWOOF organizations, it is expected for them to feed the volunteers (us) during the stay there, but seeing as how they only offer foods that they grow on the farm, we made sure to bring in whatever extra food we would need from the stores in town. Anyways, after we had exhausted our two loaves of bread, avocado, and other staples(a few days in), we were primarily left with lentils, beans rice, and potatoes, as well as a few veggies we still had left. By this time it was Sunday, and we had already prepared and eaten a few of the foods just mentioned earlier in the week. We anticipated Vicente to come back on Monday to take down our shopping list so that he could run into town with his motor bike and buy us a few more staples on Tuesday to last us the week.
Long story short, he did not show up when we thought he would, and we ended up eating nothign but lentils, beans, rice, and potatoes for longer than expected, which had gassy results for both of us, as you can imagine... Once he delivered our food, however, we were unusually ecstatic about simple things such as german pancakes and toast; I never thought something so simple as toast would give me so much pleasure in life.
I would say that the things we enjoyed most were picking blackberries (and making an improvised cobbler out of it), collecting oranges and bananas for fresh juice and smoothies, hiking around just for the fun of it, witnessing inexplicably beautiful sunsets over the Andean mountain range every evening, and having a perfectly stress-free 10 days where all we really had to worry about was feeding ourselves (and the critters) and bathing, in that order. We are really glad to have had such a unique experience in Ecuador, and we can´t wait to have more similar experiences at WWOOF organizations in other countries as well.
For now, though, the rough plan is to travel to Cuenca tomorrow where I will start attending a language school for a month, and Kait will explore volunteer opportunities. We have already found very promising prospects on both of these fronts, so we are excited to see how things work out. Wish us luck!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Banos and Cuenca
I’m afraid the Oregon weather has followed us. Since we left Latacunga after travelling the Loop we’ve been plagued by rain.
Our next stop was Baños, a smallish city in a gorgeous, lush area with tons of waterfalls. It’s pretty touristy, and lots of people end up spending quite a bit of time there doing all t he fun adventure tourism there is there- bungee jumping off bridges, rapelling down waterfalls, ziplining, horseback riding, etc. We thought we’d do the stuff on the ground first, and got in one really beautiful hike on the mountain above the city. Along the way, an ancient woman with a bundle of sticks on her back came along us on the path, gave Ace a huge grin, and said something along the line of “well hello gorgeous, where are you from?” We spent the evening in the very popular outdoor thermal baths that the city is famous for. Glorious.
The next day we went for a bike ride along bright green mountains and above a river in a canyon with tons of waterfalls dropping in to meet it. The rain caught up with us about half way, though, so we caught a bus back. The rain was showing no signs of letting up for a day of ziplining or canyoning , so the next day we caught a 6 hour bus ride South to Cuenca.
We’ve seen a lot of lovely villages so far, but Cuenca is definitely our favorite city. It’s charming in a very colonial way- lots of old cobbled streets, restored historical buildings, etc. Unfortunately our first evening there, I got a pretty brutal bout of what must have been food poisoning. I had a pretty rough night and woke up with a fever the next morning. Fortunately the hostel had a lounge and movie room, so I spend most of the next day watching movies while Ace took care of me :) The next day I felt much better, so Ace took me to a museum he’d seen the day before where we got to scope out shrunken heads. Cool. There was also a beautiful garden and bird area and the most adorable little baby llama in the world. The rain continued, so we took a bus to another outdoor thermal pool- who cares when it’s cold and rainy if you’re ear-deep in a swimming pool full of perfectly toasty bathwater?
Today we said goodbye to Cuenca and took the 5 hour bus ride to Loja, then caught our connection to Vilcabamba, our home for the next few weeks. One thing that continues to amaze us is that although we’re travelling between major cities right down the center of the country, we’re still winding about mist-shrouded volcanoes, bouncing through remote villages on unpaved section of road, and hurling around the most unbelievably curvy roads we’ve ever ridden. I spend the entire ride today with my eyes closed trying to sleep as I knew I’d throw up if I looked out the window- a shame, as I’m sure the scenery was stunning. Vilcabamba greeted us with a classic tropical downpour, which actually felt pretty good as we were still pretty woozy from the ride. We found a room at the lovely Rendez-vous hostel, a French-run place with gorgeous gardens and a cute pudgy cat. We got our groceries to take up to the farm, including such essentials as wine and dark chocolate, and we’re ready and excited to make the trek to El Condor, our first WWoofing farm, tomorrow. We’re really glad we’ll be staying in this area for a while- it ‘s small, laid-back, and fairly tropical here- absolutely lovely. We’ll be away from the internet on the farm, but will fill you all in as soon as we get back!
Our next stop was Baños, a smallish city in a gorgeous, lush area with tons of waterfalls. It’s pretty touristy, and lots of people end up spending quite a bit of time there doing all t he fun adventure tourism there is there- bungee jumping off bridges, rapelling down waterfalls, ziplining, horseback riding, etc. We thought we’d do the stuff on the ground first, and got in one really beautiful hike on the mountain above the city. Along the way, an ancient woman with a bundle of sticks on her back came along us on the path, gave Ace a huge grin, and said something along the line of “well hello gorgeous, where are you from?” We spent the evening in the very popular outdoor thermal baths that the city is famous for. Glorious.
The next day we went for a bike ride along bright green mountains and above a river in a canyon with tons of waterfalls dropping in to meet it. The rain caught up with us about half way, though, so we caught a bus back. The rain was showing no signs of letting up for a day of ziplining or canyoning , so the next day we caught a 6 hour bus ride South to Cuenca.
We’ve seen a lot of lovely villages so far, but Cuenca is definitely our favorite city. It’s charming in a very colonial way- lots of old cobbled streets, restored historical buildings, etc. Unfortunately our first evening there, I got a pretty brutal bout of what must have been food poisoning. I had a pretty rough night and woke up with a fever the next morning. Fortunately the hostel had a lounge and movie room, so I spend most of the next day watching movies while Ace took care of me :) The next day I felt much better, so Ace took me to a museum he’d seen the day before where we got to scope out shrunken heads. Cool. There was also a beautiful garden and bird area and the most adorable little baby llama in the world. The rain continued, so we took a bus to another outdoor thermal pool- who cares when it’s cold and rainy if you’re ear-deep in a swimming pool full of perfectly toasty bathwater?
Today we said goodbye to Cuenca and took the 5 hour bus ride to Loja, then caught our connection to Vilcabamba, our home for the next few weeks. One thing that continues to amaze us is that although we’re travelling between major cities right down the center of the country, we’re still winding about mist-shrouded volcanoes, bouncing through remote villages on unpaved section of road, and hurling around the most unbelievably curvy roads we’ve ever ridden. I spend the entire ride today with my eyes closed trying to sleep as I knew I’d throw up if I looked out the window- a shame, as I’m sure the scenery was stunning. Vilcabamba greeted us with a classic tropical downpour, which actually felt pretty good as we were still pretty woozy from the ride. We found a room at the lovely Rendez-vous hostel, a French-run place with gorgeous gardens and a cute pudgy cat. We got our groceries to take up to the farm, including such essentials as wine and dark chocolate, and we’re ready and excited to make the trek to El Condor, our first WWoofing farm, tomorrow. We’re really glad we’ll be staying in this area for a while- it ‘s small, laid-back, and fairly tropical here- absolutely lovely. We’ll be away from the internet on the farm, but will fill you all in as soon as we get back!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Quilotoa Loop
Kait and I just finished the Quilotoa Loop, which starts and ends in Latacunga. At first, we we had to choose between two different paths to take: starting in Quilotoa, or starting in Isinliva, a small, 80-person town with only one hostel. Being that Quilotoa, with it´s massive crater lake, was the main attraction of our trip, we decided that we would start in Isinlivi, leaving the best for last.
To prepare for our trip, Kait and I generally agreed that it would be easier to condense our massive backpacks into one (and leaving the other bag in Latacunga at the hostel) due to the fact that we would be doing quite a lot of hiking. Unfortunately for me (the one who decided to carry it), it was actually heavier with both of our "essentials" than with all of my stuff alone. Next time we will pack much less. Anyways, after leaving Hostel and Cafe Tiana in Latacunga, we started on our two-hour bus ride to Isinlivi.
Now normally bus rides are nothing of particular interest to us; usually we try not to get too hot or nauseous while taking the necessary-but-generally-unpleasant trip between two places. This ride, however, was much different than any others that we have taken. Once we were on the bus for 30 minutes, we began the ascent into a vast network of mountain-top farmlands that continued unceasingly for the rest of our trip. For miles and miles, we could see that nearly every square inch of hilltops along the bus route were covered in farms, and particularly beautiful was that each individual segment of farm was a different color than the next. This combined with excellent views of nearby volcanoes with their peaks in the clouds made for one of the most beautiful bus rides (if not THE most beautiful) that we have taken. To make things even better, we met yet another awesome Canadian named Danny on the bus who ended up coming with us for the entire Loop.
Before too long, we arrived in Isinlivi, and stayed at a hostel called Llullu Llama, a hostel run by the same people that run the Hostel Tiana in Latacunga. Once we arrived, we found a Dutch couple volunteering to run the hostel as well as teach a few subjects at the local high school. After taking in the view of a gorge from a nearby peak, Danny, Kait and I decided to have a few beers before dinner, both of which were excellent.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast provided by the hostel, we immediately began our hike into the valley using a ridiculous set of instructions explained in broken English provided by the hostel. An example of one description was “Start going up when the wáter comes to the edge.” After only getting lost for part of the way – nice farmers helped us get on track – we eventually heade in the direction where we needed to go. Unfortunately for us, after traveling for so long at the bottom of the valley, we eventually had to go up… Normally this would be no problem, but I, with my 40-pound pack on my back, was dreading it, no matter how much it needed to be done. So up we went, and I, sending Kait and Danny ahead of me, took baby steps up to the top, stopping when I could to catch my breath. After what felt like 30 minutes of this, I finally caught up to Kait and Danny at the top where there was a road that would take us to our next stop: Chugchilan. Before that, though, we descended once again near the bottom of the valley to a very small village where we rested a bit, and learned that we, once again, had to climb an even steeper, longer hillside than before. After we all recovered from the shock that I did not collapse and fall down the hillside, we continued along the road (which was still generally uphill) and eventually made our way to our next hostel, The Cloud Forest Hostel in Chugchilan.
After consuming much-needed food and soda, we rested for the night and planned for our next trek to Quilotoa. All of us agreed, however, that with my idiotically heavy backpack, I should not nearly kill myself for two days in a row, and therefore we planned to take the next leg of the loop, the hardest leg, by horseback. So early in the morning after breakfast, we met our guide and got on our three trusty steeds. Our guide, a silly man who kept asking us if we were single or not, kept us going fast along the road to Quilotoa. (He would whip our horses for us; apparently he was in a hurry.) Danny´s horse, however, was a grumpy mother who, once whipped by the guide´s rope, would buck just enough to make things fairly uncomfortable for her… I couldn´t help but laugh just a little… My horse was a very smart one who, upon hearing faster horse hooves behind her, would speed up, likely out of a fear of being whipped, so I was always in the lead. I liked to think I actually had some control over the horse, but she basically just responded to the guide´s sounds behind her.
After a very short two hours, we made it to Quilotoa, got off our horses, checked in to our hostel after bartering to get a cheaper price, and promptly made our way down the crater´s rim. After a beautiful hike downwards, we found a cheery old guy at the bottom who was eager to sell one of us a horse ride with his horse back to the top for the same price as our room for the night. After declining, we made our way back to the top in an hour less than the guidebook said it would take. (We were quite proud of ourselves about that!)
Then we stayed the night, hiked along the road to Zumbahua to catch a bus back to Latacunga. The road hike was nice, but at the end of it, we were all really tired and ready to recharge our batteries, so we ate lunch, and caught a bus back here without incident. We are happy today, after all that hiking, that we have a chance to rest and get ourselves in order before heading to Banos, a city two hours south of us. Once there, we will likely do some trekking, visit some thermal baths, and possibly some other adventure tourism if it looks good.
To prepare for our trip, Kait and I generally agreed that it would be easier to condense our massive backpacks into one (and leaving the other bag in Latacunga at the hostel) due to the fact that we would be doing quite a lot of hiking. Unfortunately for me (the one who decided to carry it), it was actually heavier with both of our "essentials" than with all of my stuff alone. Next time we will pack much less. Anyways, after leaving Hostel and Cafe Tiana in Latacunga, we started on our two-hour bus ride to Isinlivi.
Now normally bus rides are nothing of particular interest to us; usually we try not to get too hot or nauseous while taking the necessary-but-generally-unpleasant trip between two places. This ride, however, was much different than any others that we have taken. Once we were on the bus for 30 minutes, we began the ascent into a vast network of mountain-top farmlands that continued unceasingly for the rest of our trip. For miles and miles, we could see that nearly every square inch of hilltops along the bus route were covered in farms, and particularly beautiful was that each individual segment of farm was a different color than the next. This combined with excellent views of nearby volcanoes with their peaks in the clouds made for one of the most beautiful bus rides (if not THE most beautiful) that we have taken. To make things even better, we met yet another awesome Canadian named Danny on the bus who ended up coming with us for the entire Loop.
Before too long, we arrived in Isinlivi, and stayed at a hostel called Llullu Llama, a hostel run by the same people that run the Hostel Tiana in Latacunga. Once we arrived, we found a Dutch couple volunteering to run the hostel as well as teach a few subjects at the local high school. After taking in the view of a gorge from a nearby peak, Danny, Kait and I decided to have a few beers before dinner, both of which were excellent.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast provided by the hostel, we immediately began our hike into the valley using a ridiculous set of instructions explained in broken English provided by the hostel. An example of one description was “Start going up when the wáter comes to the edge.” After only getting lost for part of the way – nice farmers helped us get on track – we eventually heade in the direction where we needed to go. Unfortunately for us, after traveling for so long at the bottom of the valley, we eventually had to go up… Normally this would be no problem, but I, with my 40-pound pack on my back, was dreading it, no matter how much it needed to be done. So up we went, and I, sending Kait and Danny ahead of me, took baby steps up to the top, stopping when I could to catch my breath. After what felt like 30 minutes of this, I finally caught up to Kait and Danny at the top where there was a road that would take us to our next stop: Chugchilan. Before that, though, we descended once again near the bottom of the valley to a very small village where we rested a bit, and learned that we, once again, had to climb an even steeper, longer hillside than before. After we all recovered from the shock that I did not collapse and fall down the hillside, we continued along the road (which was still generally uphill) and eventually made our way to our next hostel, The Cloud Forest Hostel in Chugchilan.
After consuming much-needed food and soda, we rested for the night and planned for our next trek to Quilotoa. All of us agreed, however, that with my idiotically heavy backpack, I should not nearly kill myself for two days in a row, and therefore we planned to take the next leg of the loop, the hardest leg, by horseback. So early in the morning after breakfast, we met our guide and got on our three trusty steeds. Our guide, a silly man who kept asking us if we were single or not, kept us going fast along the road to Quilotoa. (He would whip our horses for us; apparently he was in a hurry.) Danny´s horse, however, was a grumpy mother who, once whipped by the guide´s rope, would buck just enough to make things fairly uncomfortable for her… I couldn´t help but laugh just a little… My horse was a very smart one who, upon hearing faster horse hooves behind her, would speed up, likely out of a fear of being whipped, so I was always in the lead. I liked to think I actually had some control over the horse, but she basically just responded to the guide´s sounds behind her.
After a very short two hours, we made it to Quilotoa, got off our horses, checked in to our hostel after bartering to get a cheaper price, and promptly made our way down the crater´s rim. After a beautiful hike downwards, we found a cheery old guy at the bottom who was eager to sell one of us a horse ride with his horse back to the top for the same price as our room for the night. After declining, we made our way back to the top in an hour less than the guidebook said it would take. (We were quite proud of ourselves about that!)
Then we stayed the night, hiked along the road to Zumbahua to catch a bus back to Latacunga. The road hike was nice, but at the end of it, we were all really tired and ready to recharge our batteries, so we ate lunch, and caught a bus back here without incident. We are happy today, after all that hiking, that we have a chance to rest and get ourselves in order before heading to Banos, a city two hours south of us. Once there, we will likely do some trekking, visit some thermal baths, and possibly some other adventure tourism if it looks good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
